CBF Group's blog

NEXT EVENT: 5^th MARCH 2013 – EXMOUTH ARMS PUB, BATH RD, CHELTENHAM

I am always amazed by the amount of people that I speak to that own a business or are a part of a business that have never thought of attending a networking group.

The usual excuses come out ‘We are too busy’, ‘I don’t think we will benefit from going’, ‘it’s too expensive’.  These may have been valid reasons five or so years ago when networking groups were expensive and elitist but they have changed a lot with the time and definitely for the better.

My personal excuse for not attending networking events was because I simply hate standing up in front of large groups and doing the presentation style networking. I cannot think of anything worse than standing up in front of 20 plus people who are hanging on my every stammered word.

Due to all the reasons above I decided to start my own networking event called #TuesdayCatchUp. The pure genius behind the name is the fact it is held on the first Tuesday of every month and it’s based on local Gloucestershire businesses ‘Catching Up’.

The reason why I thought it was important that I attended a networking event and encouraged other like minded business people to attend is simply down to the fact the more connections you can have in the business world the more doors that can be opened for you.

#TuesdayCatchUp and its Structure

I wanted #TuesdayCatchUp to not only be an event that created interest and work leads for the businesses that attended but I wanted the people that attended to actually enjoy going along to the event.

Here is an outline of the structure of #TuesdayCatchUp and the benefits.

First of all and most important for some people, #TuesdayCatchUp is a totally free event with no membership to sign. Simply come along when it suits you and the only money you need is to pay for any drink or snack you may require throughout the night.

There are no rigid timings for the event so you do not get shunned or penalised for being late. The event runs from 18:30 until around 21:00 but you can come along for as long you can manage, we fully appreciate people have families and other commitments.

The networking structure itself is very informal, so there is no standing up and doing your two minute speech or anything stuffy like that. It’s just down to you to work the room as much or as little as you like and pick and choose the people you feel you can benefit from speaking to the most. The more you attend the more you get to know people and the stronger your business relationships will become. This is when the job leads really start getting passed around as others will always recommend you and your service the more they get to know and trust you.

We actively encourage people to bring along work colleagues, other businesses owners or even just friends. Firstly this will help those of you out there who may be a little shy; at least you will know one person at the event. The huge benefit from guests being allowed to #TuesdayCatchUp is that there are always fresh, new people coming along so it’s not the same old crowd all the time.

#TuesdayCatchUp welcomes all businesses, no matter how big or small your business is there is always going to be someone there that you can benefit from speaking to. It is well worth

remembering that networking is not only about pulling in the jobs leads, who knows, you maybe be able to save your business time and money by using one of the companies represented at the event.

As the #TuesdayCatchUp events have been running for around eighteen months now we have got a steady flow of constant attendees, at each event you can expect to see up 40+ businesses and even on a slow day the event still pulls in 20+ businesses.

Does #TuesdayCatchUp sound like it could be for you?

Everyone can benefit from coming along to #TuesdayCatchUp so if you feel like coming along to one of the events the following is all you need to know.

Dates: The event is always help on the first Tuesday of the month, so the date varies but the day doesn’t.

Time: 18:30 onwards

Venue: Exmouth Arms Pub, Bath Road, Cheltenham.

Entry: Free

Next event: March 5^th 2013

If you have any further questions with regards to #TuesdayCatchUp events then please feel free to contact me on 01242 237 653 / alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you at an event soon.

NEXT #TUESDAYCATCHUP EVENT IS ON THE 5TH FEB 2013 AT 6:30 ONWARDS. HELD AT THE EXMOUTH ARMS PUB ON THE BATH RD, CHELTS

Are you still trying to get into the swing of 2013?

Do you want to start networking with local Gloucestershire businesses but don’t know where to go?

Have you tried business networking before but didn’t like the early mornings, expensive membership fees or stuffy atmosphere?

If you have answered yes to one or more of those questions then take a quick read of this short blog.

Short introduction to #TuesdayCatchUp

I started #TuesdayCatchUp in the summer of 2011 after failing to find a networking group that met my availability, budget and needs. I didn’t want the early mornings, expensive memberships and to be honest I am not the best at speaking in front of large groups so I wanted a networking event with more of a relaxed atmosphere.

Through Twitter I put the word out that I was going to be at the Exmouth Arms on the Bath Road in Cheltenham on the first Tuesday of June and if anyone wanted to simply some along and chat business then come and join me. Don’t get me wrong I can’t say the first event was a ‘Booming’ success but 10 or so people did turn up and we all had a good old chat about our business and how we were looking to evolve and grow.

Over the following months I kept up tweeting about the now name ‘#TuesdayCatchUp’ events and month of month the group gradually grew until six months or so later I had a steady attendance of 30 to 40+ businesses turning up.

What to expect from a #TuesdayCatchUp event

If you come along to a #TuesdayCatchUp you will simply be greeted by a group of friendly, link minded business people who are more than happy to talk business and help you in any way they can. You will also notice there are no formal speeches and no passing of lead slips. That is not to say job leads are not passed along, during the last event we picked up three new leads all of which turned in to live jobs. We find because you are not being forced to pass job leads around when a lead does come up it tends to be far more genuine and more likely to turn in to a live job.

Why do people pass job leads at #TuesdayCatchUp?

Due to the relaxed nature of #TuesdayCatchUp people spend more time talking to the individuals that tun up and really get to know them, sometimes even creating not only a new business contact but starting a friendship. It is down to getting to know more about the individual and their business that means you really know what they actually do as a business so more likely to know someone who may need their services. knowing the person on more of a personal level means you will actually trust them more to pass the lead on to them.

What type of business goes to a #TuesdayCatchUp event?

In short, there is not a ‘type’ that goes to #TuesdayCatchUp which is another reason why it works so well and it is so unique.

There is everyone from one man bands, small businesses, charities, representatives of larger or even national companies and just well established medium sized Gloucestershire based companies.

Just to reel off the top of my head some industries that have been represented a recent events, there have been charities including British Heart Foundation, Carers Gloucestershire and Winston’s Wish, PR companies, recruitment companies, Print and Web designers, Accountants, Property experts, Architects, Law firms, Tax advisor’s, Local council, Cloths designers, Photographers, Mobile Disco owner, Dog walkers, Personal trainers, Spa owners and well me of course, a Print management consultant and many more.

So as you can see there is a space for everyone at #TuesdayCatchUp so why not come along to one of our events.

#TuesdayCatchUp is always help on the first Tuesday of the month, the next one being the 5th Feb 2013. People tend to arrive from 6:30pm onwards and keeps going until people don’t want to chat business any more, somewhere around 9pm but you can come and go and you please. The events are always held at the Exmouth Arms on the Bath Road in Cheltenham and you can find us down stairs in the main bar (Ask one of the bar staff for Adam Le Grand and they will point you in my direction it it’s not clear where we are). #TuesdayCatchUp is a totally free event, all you may need is some money for the tipple of your choice and we do support a charity which at the moment is The Cobalt Health Care so small donations are appreciated.

If you have anymore questions about coming along to a #TuesdayCatchUp event then please do not hesitate to contact me at alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk or call me on 01242 237 652. If it is not clear my name is Adam Le Grand and I work for CBF Printing of Cheltenham.

#TuesdayCatchUp looks forward to seeing you at an event soon!

First of all I would like to welcome everyone to what should be an extremely prosperous 2013. I am sure if you listen to what you hear on the news you are wondering why I am saying it’s going to be a prosperous year but believe me there is work out there if you put yourself in the position to win in.

For those of you who have not come across the #TuesdayCatchUp blog before my name is Adam Le Grand and I am the founder of the #TuesdayCatchUp business networking events based in Cheltenham. You will also find me working for the Cheltenham based print management company CBF.

#TuesdayCatchUp in brief

I decided to start #TuesdayCatchUp in 2011 after trying out numerous networking groups in and around Cheltenham and not liking the very early mornings, the expensive membership fees and the piles of cold leads that never resulted in winning any work.

It very simply started with a tweet that I put out on Twitter simply saying, “I am going to be in the Exmouth Arms on the Bath Road at 18:30 next Tuesday if anyone would like to join me for some business chat”. To my amazement when Tuesday evening came around about 15 people actually turned up to come and chat business with me.
We all put the world to rights, discussed who we were, what we did and how we could start helping each other. Everyone had a thoroughly good time and we decided we would meet up and do the same the following month.
Leading up to the next gathering I kept tweeting about what had now been named #TuesdayCatchUp inviting more people along and again to my amazement about 20 people turned up. Month in month out we kept meeting up and I kept tweeting about the events and by the summer of 2012 I had anything between 40-60 business turning up to the #TuesdayCatchUp events.

It turns out people loved coming to my simple structured #TuesdayCatchUp events for the exact reasons why I started it in the first place and it even turned out people felt #TuesdayCatchUp had even more benefits compared to other networking events around.

Here are some of the reasons why 40+ businesses come along to #TuesdayCatchUp every month.

* It’s free.

* Businesses find they win far more work as it is not about passing on cold or warm leads. Work is passed around by simply knowing more people in the local area. Good old fashioned getting your face out there and making yourself known. With the introduction of the internet and social media people tend to neglect how powerful a tool having a good local presence is on a face to face basis not just via a computer.

* Being an evening event makes it easier to get to. You are not penalised for turning up a little late or leaving early, you come for as long as you can make it for.

* It has got a more diverse range of businesses that attend compared to other networking events.

* Easier to come along to as it is only once a month and the fact there is no membership people do not feel pressured to attend if they have prior engagements.

* It is not a purely leads based event, people like the fact you can just talk business, make contacts and just enjoy the company of like minded people. If you can spread the name of your business whilst having a good time then all the better for you.

* Friendly and relaxed atmosphere, small, medium and large businesses mix with ease on the common ground that they are all there to improve their business opportunities.

If you are not totally sold on networking then #TuesdayCatchUp is a great place to start and give it a go. There are no fees, no membership and no obligations, just simply turn up to one of our events and just enjoy networking in a relaxed atmosphere. If worst comes to worst and it not for you then there is nothing lost and at least you can say you’ve tried it.

The next #TuesdayCatchUp event is on the Tuesday 8th January 2013, so why not come and join us from 18:30 onwards at the Exmouth Arms on the Bath Road in Cheltenham.

If you cannot make it to this next one then never mind, #TuesdayCatchUp is always held on the first Tuesday of the month (apart from the January one this year due to Christmas). It is always held at the Exmouth Arms on the Bath Road and it always starts at 18:30 but as mentioned earlier, if you cannot make it until a little later then that is totally fine.

You will be able to find us in the main down stairs bar of the Exmouth but if it’s you first time and it’s not obvious who the networkers are then ask one of the Exmouth’s friendly bar staff to point you in my direction (Adam Le Grand).

If you would like to learn more about the #TuesdayCatchUp events then please do not hesitate to contact me any time or any of the following.

Tel: 01242 237 652 Email: alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk Twitter: @cbfprinters

Or keep an eye out for tweets under the hash tag #TuesdayCatchUp

We all look forward to meeting you and learning more about you at a #TuesdayCatchUp event in the near future.

Hello all of you Gloucestershire business people out there.

This is going to have to be a short and sweet blog post, not because I do not have any thing to say but my laptop is having a complete moment and will only stay on for 15 minutes before randomly restarting again. At first I thought this would be really annoying but I am quite liking the idea of just getting punchy information out to you about #TuesdayCatchUp.

#TuesdayCatchUp is now just over a year old and what can I say, it has become far bigger than I ever expected. From its humble beginning where 10 or so of us met up for a bit of business banter we are now a year on with over 40 plus attendees.

What is #TuesdayCatchUp?

#TuesdayCatchUp is a totally free networking group that invites all businesses from all around Cheltenham, Gloucester and the surrounding areas.

We are strong believers in going back to basics when it comes to making your business work and the more contacts you have the more likely you are to succeed. #TuesdayCatchUp is not all about passing leads and making referrals.

The majority of the positive feedback that we receive from people joining us at #TuesdayCatchUp is the fact that by simply getting to know and being apart of such a diverse crowd of like-minded business people they are opening more doors to business opportunities.

One of the things that makes #TuesdayCatchUp so different to any other networking group is that we understand the importance of introducing fresh faces. This is why we actively encourage all of the people who attend #TuesdayCatchUp to bring work colleagues, people they know they feel could benefit from networking, friends and even family members. By introducing new people all the time we increase the chances or new leads being created.

The structure of the #TuesdayCatchUp events is simple, you get out what you put in. You simply turn up and work the room, talk to as many or as few people as you like. See it like the mix and mingle environment of a singles dating event with a business, networking twist. You can divide your night up in to making sure you spend a couple of minutes speaking to everyone or you can just concentrate on a couple of people you feel you could really benefit from knowing.

Why should you come along to #TuesdayCatchUp?

The reason why you should at least try #TuesdayCatchUp is simple, everybody that attends is there for one reason and that is to improve their business. Not only by receiving leads but by making contacts, learning how other businesses work and by soaking up local business knowledge. #TuesdayCatchUp is like a little community so the networking does carry on out side of the events through people meeting up in the own time, having one to one meetings and by keeping in touch through the likes of twitter and facebook.

When and where is #TuesdayCatchUp

#TuesdayCatchUp is held at the Exmouth Arms Pub on the Bath Road in Cheltenham, you will find us in the main bar area. The events are held on the first Tuesday or every month so be careful as the date may vary. The event technically starts at 6:30pm but we totally understand people need to organise other things so it’s not the end of the world if you turn up slightly later. The same goes for when it finishes, most people disperse at around 8:30pm but if you can only make it for a flying visit then that is totally fine too.

If you are interested in coming along and would like to find out more then please do not hesitate to contact me by the following;

Name: Adam Le Grand
T: 01242 237 652
E: alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk
Tw: @cbfprinters

Or you can contact Lawson Willett at lwillett@cbfnet.co.uk / @lawsonwillett

We hope to see you at a #TuesdayCatchUp event soon.

If you cast your minds back to the May #TuesdayCatchUp event you may remember we held a baby sweepstakes to raise money for Winston’s Wish. The sweepstakes were to guess the vital statistics of my first born child, everyone was asked to guess Sex, Weight and Birth date.

On top of our running total the very kind small donations to enter the baby sweepstakes raised an extra £57.00 towards our target which is fantastic. The running total needs to be calculated but we are well on our way to reaching our £250.00 target so I would like to thank everyone who has helped us by coming to the #TuesdayCatchUp events.

Before I announce the winners of the baby sweepstakes I would like to thank the extremely kind local people and businesses who provided the prizes for the event.

Daniela Davis of Ella Hairdressing in Cheltenham

Ella Hairdressing Cheltenham

Jo Hazlett of Twinkle Twinkle Chocolate Bar in Cheltenham

Twinkle Twinkle Chocolate Bar Cheltenham

Sarah Capewell of The Exmouth Arms Pub in Cheltenham

The Exmouth Arms Pub Cheltenham

These are all fantastic local business so do make sure you look them up or even better why not pop in to see them.

Without any further delay here are the results and winners of the #TuesdayCatchUp baby sweepstakes.

Firstly, the actual vital statistics are as follows.

Sex: Boy

Weight: 8.3oz

Date of Birth: 7^th June 2012

3^rd Place with the guess of Girl, 8.1oz & June 7^th was Jules Dean (@thebabyjourney)

2^nd Place with the guess of Boy, 8.2oz and June 10^th was Daniela Davis (@ellahair)

1^st Please with the guess of Boy, 8.3oz and June 8^th was Rachel Arthur (@rachelartdesign)

I would like to say a huge congratulations to you all and thank you for taking part and helping us raise money for Winston’s Wish.

To claim your prize please drop me an email to alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk or why not come and see us at CBF Towers!

You have got to be in it to win it so keep an eye out for upcoming #TuesdayCatchUp events; you never know it may be you collecting a fantastic prize next time.

For anyone who has been on the Twitter scene for any length of time has most likely seen the #TuesdayCatchUp and #ThursdayCatchUp hash tags banded around and retweeted.

I am sure for a lot of you these words mean absolutely nothing, but for a growing number of Gloucestershire business owners and representatives these #Catchups are a great source of business contacts, leads and industry knowledge.

Back to the original question, what is #ThursdayCatchUp?

#ThursdayCatchUp is the younger Gloucester sibling to the ever growing and popular Cheltenham #TuesdayCatchUp. The Catch up events are a FREE open house networking event for anyone who would like to make the journey. They have even have even seen business representatives from as far afield as Birmingham come along to have a good old mingling session.

The whole aim of #ThursdayCatchUp is to bring together businesses from Gloucester and the surrounding areas to chat business and through making more contacts pass work around.

The relaxed structure of the catch up events seem to bring far more positive results than more of the structured networking groups that are around. Instead of feeling pressured to pass referrals and leads, people concentrate more on just building bridges and getting to know people that could be of use to them in the local community. The other USP to #ThursdayCatchUp is unlike all the other networking groups that are out there it is totally free, no memberships and no one off payments. Just turn up as and when you feel the need to do some networking and boost your businesses presence.

We are only moving on to the second Gloucester #ThursdayCatchUp so it is very much finding it feet but to show you the power of the catch up brand within less than a year #TuesdayCatchUp has gone from nothing to on average 50+ attendees at each event. That is 50+ new businesses you could be introducing yourself to for free. On top of that, through getting to know people at the event and using the catch up hash tags on twitter, people continue to communicate and pass work between the events as well (more free marketing for you as you name is being used on a social site).

How do I get involved?

Getting involved with #ThursdayCatchUp of the Cheltenham #TuesdayCatchUp is easy, just simply turn up and off you go, just like meeting your mates down the pub. All you need to do is bring is a hand full of business cards and a couple of pennies for your favourite tipple whilst you are there. We also help support a charity (currently Winston’s Wish), so if you want to you can get involved with the numerous charity events we hold. There are usually some great prizes to be has so it’s well worth it.

So if you are self employed, manage a business or in charge of creating new business for your company then why not pop along to one of our events. You never know what doors it may open for you.

#ThursdayCatchUp and #TuesdayCatchUp details:

The next #ThursdayCatchUp is on 17^th May from 18:30 onwards. #ThursdayCatchUps are always held on the third Thursday of the month. They take place at the Wheatstone Inn in Barnwood, Gloucester which is in the same business park as the Ten Pin bowling complex. There is free parking and food + drink available.

The next #TuesdayCatchUp is on 5^th June from 18:30 onwards. #TuesdayCatchUps are always held on the first Tuesday of the month. They take please at the Exmouth Arms Pub on the Bath Road in Cheltenham. There is also free parking and again, food + drink available.

If you would like to receive any more information or just have a casual chat about the goings on at the catch up events then please feel free to contact the following people.

Adam Le Grand

07879025330 : alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk : @cbfprinters on twitter

Rachel Davis

davisr@bhf.org.uk : @glosox on twitter

Lawson Willett

lwillett@cbfnet.co.uk : @lawsonwillett on twitter

Come along and help support your local charity.

It is finally here people!

After months of eager anticipation the #TuesdayCatchUp Winston’s Wish Charity fundraiser Baby Sweep Stake is finally here! It is taking place at the May #TuesdayCatchUp on the 1^st May.

For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last six months or who were unfortunate enough to have been in a Twitter induced coma will know my lovely Wife and I (Adam) are expecting our first child. Naturally, with me being from the Home of Jump Horse Racing and my partner being a Scousser, we immediately decided bets must be taken and money should be made by the fact we are having a baby. Sadly we could not justify making it into a sweep stake where we profited from the event so we made the decision to use it as one of the #TuesdayCatchUp charity events for Winston’s Wish.

I am sure anyone who has had a family member or friend have a baby is aware of the baby sweep stake rules, but for those of you who are not then here is how you play.

To enter the sweep stake we are asking for a small donation of £1 (if you would like to be extremely generous then you are more than welcome to donate more than £1).

You can have more than one entry in to the baby sweep stake but for every entry you wish to make, £1 will be expected to be donated.

What do I have to do?

For a £1 entry you get one chance to guess the Sex, Weight & Delivery date of the lovely Le Grand baby. For example: Boy/7.6oz/6^th June. The closer you are to have the correct answers the more points you get. For example if you guess the sex right you get five points, if you get the due date correct you get 5 points, if you are one day out you get 4 points, 2 days out 3 points and so on.

Once everyone has entered the waiting game begins. The actual due date of our little bundle of joy is 6^th June 2012. When we have had the baby I will return to the estimates that everyone made and calculate the three people with the highest amount of points.

The amazing prizes are being kept under wraps at the moment, but I can assure you that you will not want to miss out on the opportunity to win one. As you all know the main point of #TuesdaycatchUp is to build up a community to help out and bring together local businesses, so all the prizes are being donated by some fantastic local Gloucestershire businesses. 100% of the money made from the baby sweep stake will be going directly to Winston’s Wish.

My wonderful wife will be ‘Waddling’ around with the Winston’s Wish bucket, so you will be able to see her before making your decision.

Dont forget we have our first ever #ThursdayCatchUp being held on Thursday 19^th April at the Wheatstone Inn, next to 10 Pin at Centre Severn in Barnwood, so please all feel free to come and support us there for another great night of #Glosbiz Networking.

I look forward to seeing some familiar and also hopefully some new faces at both the Gloucester #ThuesdayCatch and the Cheltenham #TuesdayCatchUp.

Ta Ta for now..

After 10 months you might just be starting to get your head around the whole concept of #TuesdaycatchUp. Well bring on the Trumpets because on the back of the success of #TuesdayCatchUp ‘ALG Enterprises’ is now launching…. wait for it…. #ThursdayCatchUp.

I know, I know, I can hear you asking, how is it that I came up with such an original name. All I can say is it involved many sleepless nights and lots of brain storming. I don’t know how I keep doing it to be honest, move over Sugar and Trump its Le Grand’s turn now.

Anyway, back to the main article.

Between myself and my lovely assistant Rachel Davis a.k.a @Glosox, say hello Rachel…

Hello its me! Rachel Davis

We are launching #ThursdayCatchUp which is going to be a Gloucester version of the well established #TuesdaycatchUp.

For those of you that have been to a #TuesdaycatchUp event, it is going to stick to exactly the same structure. For those of you who haven’t been to a #TuesdayCatchUp networking event I will quickly bring you up to speed.

The #CatchUp networking group was founded in Cheltenham nearly a year ago. It was set up purely through Twitter to bring together all local businesses that enjoyed networking but didn’t enjoy the early mornings, membership fees and the scary 60 second stand up talks that you have to do.

Hence why if you come to either #TuesdayCatchUp in Cheltenham or the new #ThursdayCatchUp you will never have to pay, never be asked to pass referrals, never be asked to do a minute’s pitch on demand or anything else along those lines. All that is asked from you is to turn up for as long as you can between the hours or 18:30 & 21:30, to mix and mingle as much as you feel comfortable and to bring a couple of business cards or at least a scrap piece of paper with your number on so you can stay in touch with any potential leads.

The other USP for the #CatchUp networking events is it really doesn’t matter what you business background is, at the Cheltenham events we have everyone from Dog walkers, Fashion Designers, Tradesman, Managing Directors, Accountants and even a really lovely print company. So if you’re interested in coming along you really do not have to worry about whether your business is big enough or relevant enough.

Unlike #TuesdayCatchUp #ThursdayCatchUp is always going to be held on the third Thursday of each month. Unless we get booted out for bad behaviour #ThursdayCatchUp will always be held at Wheatstone Inn, next to 10 Pin at Centre Severn in Barnwood. The event will commence at 18:30, but no need to rush as you will not be locked out if you don’t arrive exactly on time.

If this all sounds up your street, then why not join us for the launch of #ThursdayCatchUp on the 19^th April?

Keep an eye out for more blog posts for more information, in the mean time if you have any questions about #ThursdayCatchUp or #TuesdayCatchUp then please do not hesitate to contact myself or Rachel using the information below.

Rachel Davies: davisr@bhf.org.uk Twitter: @GlosOx

Adam Le Grand: alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk Twitter: @CBFprinters Phone: 01242 237 652

We look forward to meeting you all soon.

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After last night’s #TuesdayCatchUp I became very inspired with the whole business community feel people seem to be building.

I got speaking to a couple of people who work in and around the wedding/events supplier industry.

They were all saying the same thing that they didn’t feel they were getting the Bang for their Buck when it comes to their small marketing budgets at the moment (as we all know people are feeling the pinch a little)..

Therefore, I have come up with a simple idea and knocked some figures together and depending on the specification of the materials we can produce 10,000 A5 4 page leaflets (pic to follow) for around the £500-£550 mark..

If everyone took a business card’ish size slot you could advertise 30 to 35 businesses on this sized material, which essentially means for your 10,000 leaflets you end up paying roughly £16-20 each and you all walk away with 300+ leaflets each.

Individually you can get your 300+ leaflets to distribute how you please but the bigger picture is you have 10,000 leaflets flying around potential customers with your (10% offer or whatever it is advert on it) all for +/- £20!

Obviously the potential is endless: if you end up getting 100 businesses involved you could have a 16 page leaflet, maybe incorporating some wedding supplier newsletter type editorial. You could take a turn each to have a write up or something in it.

To build the brand you could have one produced monthly or bi monthly as an ongoing publication that people look forward to receiving. Just an idea.

The question you have to ask yourself is could you ever get in front of 10,000 + potential customers for £20.00??

ON TOP OF ALL THAT For FREE CBF will even publish it as a Epublication so you could punt it around twitter and Facebook until the cows come home (more FREE marketing for you)..

With regards to artwork, we would be more than happy to set a rate of £25.00 PER ADVERT for a basic advert set up (this would be simply placing the company logo and making the editorial look pretty – no design from scratch).

This would be charged to the individual advertiser.

That said, ideally you would want to approach a local designer to see if they would set the artwork for free is they can have a little advertising slot.

Thought’s please?

Adam

It’s that time of the month again when I realised I have taken far too long to do another #TuesdayCatchUp blog post. With an amazingly busy month at the CBF Towers and the wonderful Cheltenham Horse Racing Festival, time has just been taken away from me in the past couple of weeks.

I know a lot of people like reading the previous #TuesdayCatchUp review but I am making this post more about looking towards the future. There is lots going on in the #TuesdayCatchUp camp and there is some really exciting news to come out too (keep reading to find out what it is).

Before I go into all the exciting news I just want to share a very interesting fact with you all. You may not believe it but #TuesdaycatchUp is in fact only 9 events old, but already over the last three events we have consistently hit 50+ attendees. That includes our February event where we believe we had our record attendance we over 60 people turning up.

For those of you that may have not attended a #TuesdayCatchUp event, just think that this is an extra 50+ businesses monthly event that you could be introducing yourself to. Not many other networking groups can offer those kinds of figures and the best thing about it is the event is FREE.

Now, some of you may have noticed that we have been a tad quiet on the Winston’s Wish fundraising front. This is because we have a big sweep stake taking place at the May event so we wanted you to be able to really dig deep in to those pockets and donate to get your chance to win some fantastic prizes.

For those of you that don’t know, my partner & I are expecting our first child on the 6^th June. So the May sweep stake is going to be based on guessing the sex of the baby, date of birth & weight. I shall be going in to more detail with regards to the baby sweep stake in a blog post to follow but to take part you must be at the May 1^st #TuesdaycatchUp event.

Now to the most important news, some people are saying it’s the news of the century, well I have been anyway.

Due to the great success of the Cheltenham #TuesdayCatchUp business networking event, me and the oh so lovely Rachel Davis of the British Heart Foundation (@GlosOx) are pleased to inform you all we are now introducing the Gloucester #ThursdayCatchUp.

Rachel Davis – Co-host of #ThursdayCatchUp

So for those of you lovely business people that were always interested in the idea of #TuesdaycatchUp but couldn’t make it over to Cheltenham, here is your chance to get involved at our Gloucester event. This is not to say if you are from Cheltenham or already go to #TuesdayCatchUp you cannot join us at #ThursdayCatchUp as well. In fact we are encouraging followers of #TuesdayCatchUp to come to the Gloucester event as you are only going to introduce yourself to even more businesses if you do. We would love to see businesses from all over come and support the event.

The Gloucester #ThursdayCatchUp is going to take place on the third Thursday of each month, with the first event taking place on the 19^th April at 18:30.

Keep your eyes peeled for a far more detailed blog post with regards to #ThursdayCatchUp with lots more news and information.

In the meantime if you would like to receive any information on the Gloucester #ThursdayCatchUp then please do not hesitate to contact Rachel Davis or myself on the following:

Rachel Davis – Twitter / @Glosox : Email / davisr@bhf.org.uk

Adam Le Grand – Twitter / @CBFprinters : Email / alegrand@cbfnet.co.uk : Call / 01242 237 652

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